October 2007

“Earlier this year, I reviewed a multimedia LCD screen with remote. Well, now I'm reviewing another one, except this one has a little more pizzazz. The iMON Ultra Bay IR Receiver and LCD Display is the newest model made by SoundGraph, Inc. It is basically an upgraded version of SoundGraph's iMON VFD. The iMON Ultra Bay is twice as high as most LCD display screens, but don't let that frighten you. The upper section is the LCD screen itself (which is approximately the same size as other screens,) and the bottom section has a number of nice, handy buttons and knobs with which to control the device. The iMON Ultra Bay also boasts a remote that is compatible with both MCE remote controllers and keyboards. The remote and device knobs/buttons together give users access to their multimedia systems both up close and from afar. Through these features, SoundGraph touts the iMON Ultra Bay as an easier, more thorough way to monitor both system and media information. Let's see if what they say is true.”

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Google Inc is in active talks with number-two U.S. mobile carrier Verizon Wireless about putting Google applications on phones it offers, people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

"There are good useful talks going on and they could result in a deal," one of the sources said.

So far talks between the Web search leader and Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc, revolve around technology and potential business models such as advertising-sponsored services, one of the people said.

“Enemy Territory: Quake Wars” is up against some fearsome competition in the online PC multi-player shooter genre. “Battlefield 2142” continues to draw legions of devoted conscripts and many gamers are saving their gaming bucks for “Crysis,” “Unreal Tournament 3,” or “Call of Duty 4,” which are all due out before Christmas.

Although the online servers for “Quake Wars” have been only intermittently well populated, it’s definitely not due to the game. I chalk it up to bad timing on my part, because “Quake Wars,” published by Activision, is a gorgeous-looking, well-balanced shooter.

NEW YORK - The United States is starting to look like a slowpoke on the Internet. Examples abound of countries that have faster and cheaper broadband connections, and more of their population connected to them.

What's less clear is how badly the country that gave birth to the Internet is doing, and whether the government needs to step in and do something about it. The Bush administration has tried to foster broadband adoption with a hands-off approach. If that's seen as a failure by the next administration, the policy may change.

In a move to get a clearer picture of where the U.S. stands, the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday approved legislation that would develop an annual inventory of existing broadband services — including the types, advertised speeds and actual number of subscribers — available to households and businesses across the nation

San Francisco (IDGNS) - Asustek Computer's Linux-based Eee PC laptop will soon be on sale in North America and Europe, and the company plans to offer a version running Windows XP by the end of the year.

The Eee PC is a low-cost laptop designed primarily for children and emerging markets such as India. It weighs less than a kilogram, has a 7-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) screen and can connect to the Internet wirelessly. The first version went on sale earlier this month in Asia, including in Hong Kong and Taiwan, where it's priced at about NT$11,100 (US$340)

San Francisco (IDGNS) - Adding Windows XP to Asustek Computer's Eee PC will double the price of the low-cost laptop compared to existing versions running Linux.

The company will sell a version of the Eee PC with Windows XP in mature markets such as the U.S. and Europe for around US$1,000, while a configuration aimed at emerging market nations will cost about $500, said Jerry Shen, president of Asustek, during an investors conference Tuesday in Beitou, Taiwan.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Internet media company Yahoo Inc said on Tuesday it is adding media-playing features, large file transfers, new languages and other tools to its instant messaging service.

The move comes as a growing number of rivals -- from incumbents like AOL to social network sites like News Corp's MySpace -- boost their positions in the market for instant messaging services.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Web search leader Google Inc is expected to announce advanced software and services enabling handset makers to bring Google-powered phones to market by mid-2008, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The announcement is expected to come within the next two weeks, the newspaper reported.

SANTA CLARA, CA—OCTOBER 29, 2007—The NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800 GT, the latest in the standard-setting GeForce 8 Series of graphics processing units (GPUs), is hitting store shelves today. Specifically developed to answer enthusiast gamers’ demand for high-performing graphics at the $199 to $259 price point, GeForce 8800 GT offers a hyper-reactive, intensely robust gaming experience for the latest next-generation DirectX 10 games, such as Crysis, Hellgate: London, and Gears of War, as well as full support for current DirectX 9 games.

“When we introduced the GeForce 8 Series family, our most savvy customers and press demanded a product with 64 stream processors and a 256-bit memory interface to deliver more performance at the popular $199 to $259 price point. Today we decided to raise the bar and deliver GeForce 8800 GT with 112 stream processors, a fast 256-bit memory interface, and our second-generation PureVideo HD technology, giving our customers an incredible value proposition.” said Ujesh Desai, general manager of GeForce desktop GPUs at NVIDIA. “At this price point, gamers are getting more performance and features than ever before.”

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese electronics group Toshiba Corp. (6502.T: Quote, Profile, Research) posted a jump in quarterly operating profit on Monday, thanks to solid flash memory chip prices and power plant sales, and raised its full-year outlook by 12 percent, closer to market estimates.

WINDSOR, California (AP) -- Given the option of contesting a traffic ticket, most motorists -- 19 out of 20 by some estimates -- would rather pay up than pit their word against a police officer's in court. Though courts do not routinely accept GPS readouts as evidence, somedrivers are starting to use them to challenge traffic violations.

A retired sheriff's deputy nevertheless hopes to beat the long odds of the law by setting the performance of a police officer's radar gun against the accuracy of the GPS tracking device he installed in his teenage stepson's car.

The retired deputy, Roger Rude, readily admits his 17-year-old stepson, Shaun Malone, enjoys putting the pedal to the metal. That's why he and Shaun's mother insisted on putting a global positioning system that monitors the location and speed of the boy's Toyota Celica.

Shaun complained bitterly about his electronic chaperone until it became his new best friend on July 4, when he was pulled over and cited for going 62 mph in a 45 mph zone.

“The original G15 was meant to cater to a niche group of gamers and enthusiasts, and attempting to make it more "mainstream" by toning down some features totally defeats the original purpose. Added to this, the MSRP of the new G15 is $100 USD, compared to only $80 USD for the original G15 when it came out in 2005. This of course doesn't mean that the G15 v2 is a bad keyboard. On the contrary, I was very pleased with it, and compared with other options, I believe it is the best buy. On its own, the G15 v2 is a very good keyboard, and if the original G15 had not existed I would probably rate it as the best.“

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Walgreen plans to put kiosks that can make DVDs of popular movies in drugstore photo departments next year, using a new system that would increase selection while avoiding piracy.

Recent change in copy-protection rules governing DVDs have freed Walgreen and other retailers to tap this new movie market by letting consumers burn digital copies onto blank discs at stores, industry watchers said.

LOS ANGELES - NBC and Fox are set to launch an advertising-supported online video site that hosts programming from varied entertainment companies in a bid to seize viewers from Google Inc.'s YouTube, the broadcasters said.

A test version of the site, Hulu.com, goes online Monday, with plans to premiere a final version in a few months, company officials said.

The site, developed by News Corp. and NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co., offers free viewing of full-length films and TV episodes, supported by advertising.

Although recent market observations noted that the graphics card market is facing problems due to the trend of notebooks replacing desktop PCs, and IGP (integrated graphics processor) performance continuously improving, sources at first-tier graphics card makers remain optimistic and believe that the market should see a boost in the second quarter of 2008.

With Windows Vista SP1 and more DirectX 10-based games scheduled to launch in 2008, demand for DirectX 10-based graphics cards should see a boost, noted the sources.

Additionally, 20 and 22-inch widescreen monitors should become mainstream products in 2008, pushing the average monitor resolution up to 1680×1050. This could cause users with integrated graphics to upgrade for better performance, added the sources.

“Given the state of the DDR3 supplies and how the market is continuing to speed up with more and more variations of kits available, it was no surprise when we received Mushkin's Enhanced HP3-10666 2GB Memory kit. This is the beginning launch of their DDR3 memory line following up their very successful DDR2 memory which we've been privileged to test. Given the history of their memory modules, we expect something formidable none the less. Thanks in part to ASUS, we have a motherboard well tuned and tested that can support these modules.”

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Apple Inc. no longer accepts cash for iPhone purchases and now limits sales of the cell phone to two per person in a move to stop people from reselling them.

The new policy started Thursday, said Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris. Before then, there was no cash restriction and the purchase limit was five per person.

"Customer response to the iPhone has been off the charts, and limiting iPhone sales to two per customer helps us ensure that there are enough iPhones for people who are shopping for themselves or buying a gift," Kerris said. "We're requiring a credit or debit card for payment to discourage unauthorized resellers."

Users of the MySpace.com social networking Website will be able to add multiplayer games to their personal profile pages, and play them for free, from next year. MySpace has struck a deal with Oberon Media Inc. to make available hundreds of casual games from its portfolio, the companies said Tuesday.

MySpace provides a platform on which individuals or groups can build Web pages known as personal profiles, showcasing their tastes or talents in music or other aspects of multimedia creation. With the games channel MySpace plans, those users will also be able to highlight their favorite games, and perhaps find others to play them with.

“Whether you want a sub $100 budget card or a sub $200 mid-range card, either one of these will be a good choice. Both cards performed well and with the new PCMark Vantage benchmark tests, you can see the Frames Per Second in the gaming GPU test. The XD2600XT doubled the FPS over the XD2400XT in gaming, but in the video playback and transcoding, results are almost identical. Each card comes with a DVI to HDMI adapter and this makes either card ideal for a home entertainment setup.”

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Activision Inc is set to launch "Guitar Hero 3" amid expectations that the latest installment of its music-themed franchise will be a platinum hit for the second-biggest U.S. video game publisher.

The game is the highly anticipated encore to one of the year's breakout successes, "Guitar Hero 2", which sold 3.9 million copies through September, according to market research firm NPD.

The game has become a cultural phenomenon. Bars have held "Guitar Hero" competitions and fans have uploaded videos of their best performances to the Internet. A search for "Guitar Hero" on YouTube returns 76,100 results.

LOS ANGELES - When the Pentagon's research arm first called for innovators to design and race a self-driving car to make warfare safer, a ragtag bunch of garage tinkerers, computer geeks and even high school students answered.

No one won the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's inaugural contest in 2004. An encore the following year produced five robots that crossed the finish line, and a team from Stanford University drove away with the $2 million prize.

If yesteryear's contests evoked the Wild West, with teams working in the open desert on a shoestring budget, this year's is modern: The field is more savvy, the terrain is urban and corporate sponsors and public relations machines have entered the fray.

"They've become like NASCAR teams with multiple sponsors and stickers on everything," said Peter Singer, a Brookings Institution senior fellow who has followed the DARPA competitions. "It shows that it's becoming big business."

Leopard, the new version of Apple's operating system, hits stores Friday with a wide array of new features to check out, from Time Machine to Cover Flow to iChat Theater.

Although AMD has launched the Black Edition Athlon 64 X2 5000+ CPU with an unlocked multiplier, some motherboard makers are taking a conservative view over whether the CPU will help win back market share, according to sources at motherboard makers.

Some motherboard makers have no plans to adjust their current shipment proportions since they do not think the Black Edition CPUs will lead to any increase in demand for AMD motherboard, noted the sources.

BOSTON (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp has made progress in getting its Windows software to work on a low-cost laptop computer for poor children that currently runs on rival Linux software, an executive said on Thursday.

The world's largest software company is now working to adapt a basic version of Windows XP so it is compatible with the nonprofit One Laptop per Child Foundation's small green-and-white XO laptop.

"We're spending a nontrivial amount of money on it," Microsoft Corporate Vice President Will Poole said in an interview on Thursday.

SAN FRANCISCO - Online technology news and entertainment provider CNet Networks Inc. has sold photo-sharing site Webshots to American Greetings Corp. for $45 million, substantially less than the service cost to acquire three years ago.

The San Francisco-based company announced the deal Thursday along with its third-quarter financial results. CNet suffered a loss of $16.6 million during the three months ended in September, widening from a loss of $2.3 million at the same time last year.

The Webshots sale represented another setback because CNet bought the site for $70 million in 2004. Since then, Webshots has faced tougher competition from other photo sharing services such as Yahoo Inc.'s Flickr.

San Francisco (IDGNS) - The new Gateway will launch a complete line of notebook PCs as one of many steps to revitalize its business after merging with Acer, an Acer executive said Friday.

"Gateway's problem in the U.S. is that it mainly sells desktops, but the notebook is the fastest growing segment," said Gianfranco Lanci, president of Acer, during the company's third quarter investors conference in Taipei.

New Gateway laptop PCs could be out as early as the first quarter of next year. Lanci said that no changes to Gateway's product lineup will be visible until then because it takes at least one quarter to discuss new products with retailers and distributors.

“It's been almost 2 years since I originally reviewed the Lapinator line of laptop desks. Seldom does any product stick around long enough in my house to be worthy of an update on the review, but the Lapinator Plus is the exception.”

Sunnyvale, Calif.—October 25, 2007—OCZ today announced immediate plans to bring Hypersonic PC into the OCZ Technology Group. Known primarily as the worldwide leader in innovative, high-performance computer memory and power supply units, OCZ acquired Hypersonic PC to employ their rich expertise in high-end system building and take the organization and mobile gaming to the next level. Hypersonic has been paving the way in maximum performance computing since 1996 and established themselves as a leader attributable to their diligent focus on technology, quality, craftsmanship, and world-class support. Under the OCZ Technology Group, the Hypersonic vision can be taken to new heights and grow in key areas of innovation, product development, and market reach.

Combined with their highly personalized solutions and aggressive deployment of the newest advances in PC technology, Hypersonic has earned numerous industry awards and recognition and filled the enthusiast niche unlike any system builder. Their extensive product line includes highly-tuned gaming systems, cutting-edge notebooks, and powerful workstations and is a culmination of their dedication to their craft and the end-user.

With OCZ taking the lead, the goal is to carry on the Hypersonic tradition of catering to the demands of the high-end market while increasing resources to maximize innovation and technological leadership and at the same time maintaining their high level of service, quality-control, and customization. Hypersonic PC’s time-honored reputation for putting the extreme enthusiast and gamer at the forefront of product design and development can now be taken to the next level with the acquisition.

“Most motherboards are usually geared toward the enthusiast or the budget builder, but more and more manufacturers lately are creating specialty-type motherboards, like ones for home entertainment. abit has created a motherboard just for this niche of people: the AN-M2HD. As the days pass, HTPC's continue to gain massive popularity with moviephiles with the advent of larger storage devices and HDMI. The AN-M2HD has an onboard HDMI connection for some of today's newer monitors/TV's. The AN-M2HD utilizes the new NVIDIA GeForce 7050PV North Bridge and NVIDIA nForce 630a South Bridge chips. Each chip is cooled by a heatsink to add to that extra quietness for a theater setup, but 4 auxiliary fan headers are included on the motherboard if extra cooling will be needed.”

SAN FRANCISCO - Rapidly rising Internet star Facebook Inc. has sold a 1.6 percent stake to Microsoft Corp. for $240 million, spurning a competing offer from online search leader Google Inc.

Culminating weeks of negotiations, the investment announced Wednesday values Palo Alto-based Facebook at $15 billion — a stunning figure for an online hangout started in a Harvard University dorm room less than four years ago.

Microsoft also will sell Internet ads for Facebook as the site expands outside the United States, broadening a marketing relationship that began last year.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - EBay Inc, the world's largest online auctioneer and payments company, launched on Wednesday a Web site allowing ordinary investors to buy securities aimed at improving conditions in the world's poorest countries.

MicroPlace, located at http://www.microplace.com, will allow people to invest as little as $100 to support development in impoverished areas.

So-called microfinance is the supply of loans, savings, insurance and other basic financial services to low-income households and businesses, typically without collateral. It is often conducted in emerging economies, where people cannot typically obtain bank loans.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Blu-ray DVD titles outsold rival HD-DVD titles by almost 2-to-1 in the first nine months of the year, but analysts expect additional HD-DVD support and new hit releases to "transform" the high-definition DVD battle score in the fourth quarter.

You are a member of the Settlement Class if, between March 22, 2001, and September 26, 2007, you purchased in the United States a new Seagate Retail Hard Drive. A "Retail Hard Drive" is a Seagate brand hard disc drive that you purchased from an authorized Seagate retailer or distributor, separately as a Seagate product that was not pre-installed into and sold bundled with a personal computer or other electronic device

"The Mushkin memory that's up for testing today is its 2GB HP3-10666 (DDR3-1333) memory kit. By default the memory is rated to run at 1333 MHz with low CAS latency timings of 6-7-6-18, on a voltage of 1.7-1.8V. Much of the DDR3 memory on the market has a CAS Latency of 7 or 8, so Mushkin's memory here will perform faster clock for clock compared to the competition!"

Comcast interferes with peer-to-peer traffic on its cable network by masquerading as users and resetting connections, the Associated Press reported on Friday. Apparently in an effort to maintain quality of service, Comcast cuts off uploads of files to BitTorrent and other P2P networks.

While observers agree that an Internet service provider needs to be able manage its traffic, the way Comcast is going about this -- by impersonating customers -- is troubling to many.

"Comcast is in an interesting position because the amount of outbound and inbound traffic is constrained in their network," Dane Jasper, CEO of Sonic.net, a California ISP, said in a telephone interview. "In an asynchronous network, as the amount of outbound traffic grows, inbound rates will decrease." Thus in order to maintain service quality for inbound traffic, which is important to all users, Comcast is throttling outbound P2P traffic.

TORONTO - BlackBerry maker Research In Motion has launched Facebook software designed especially for its smartphones to make it easier for users to browse the popular social networking Web site.

T-Mobile USA has been chosen as the first carrier to provide the new software to its customers, RIM said on Wednesday.

The application will let users receive Facebook notifications and messages automatically and scroll through them quickly, just like the e-mail service for which the BlackBerry is already well known. Users can also read and compose messages even while off line, RIM said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Online social network Facebook is close to reaching a deal with Google Inc or Microsoft Corp for an investment that would value the company as high as $15 billion, according to media reports on Wednesday.

A Facebook deal would include an agreement with the investing company to handle its overseas advertising sales, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Codenames and features of the tri-core CPUs AMD is planning to launch next year and in 2009 have been revealed by sources at motherboard makers.

Toliman adopts a 65nm process, supports socket AM2+ motherboards, and supports HyperTransport 3.0. The CPUs will have 2MB L3 cache and will be launched by the end of March 2008, according to the sources.

The next-generation, 45nm-based CPUs will adopt socket AM3, support HyperTransport 3.0 and DDR2/DDR3 memory, and will launch in first half of 2009, noted the sources.

“Overall these Kingwin Z1 hard drive enclosures are of good quality and the kit includes everything you need to get up and running other than the hard drive itself. The ability to use wither USB 2.0 or e-SATA is a nice option if you're switching between maybe a main rig with e-SATA and an older rig with only USB ports.”

Sunnyvale, CA—October 23, 2007—OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high-reliability memory and power supplies, today announced the new 500 Watt StealthXStream Power Supply to offer a sufficient source of power for mainstream gaming PCs. The 500W edition features the same understated look as its 600W predecessor with a sleek black case and unlit fan for the value-conscious consumer seeking effective, quiet performance. Qualified under the watchful eye of the Power Management division at PC Power & Cooling, the StealthXStream is built for superior reliability at an extremely affordable price point.

“Gigabyte has been around for some time and is widely considered a top competitor in the enthusiast motherboard market. However in recent times they have expanded their product line to cover video cards, powers supplies, CPU cooling and chassis. Today I have a chance to review the Gigabyte iSolo 210 case, their newest addition to their budget line of cases, this steel case may not possess all of the exciting features found in the enthusiast level chassis line they offer, but let’s dig in and see how this case stacks up in its price range.”

Keep your hard drive running a peak efficiency by keeping it as cool as possible. The Ultra Aluminum Hard Drive Cooler with Heatpipes dissipates heat efficiently and quietly. The hard drive cooler features passive thermal heat dissipation using fan-less operation, high-performance sintered powder heatpipes and top heatsink fins. The rubber dampers reduce your hard drives noise and vibration to make your PC run as quiet as possible. Make your hard drive run quieter and cooler with Ultra’s Aluminum Hard Drive Cooler with Heatpipes today!

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - StumbleUpon, a fast rising Web search site bought by eBay Inc in May, is moving beyond automated Web discovery to offer a novel way to see what friends find useful or interesting on the Web.

StumbleUpon (www.stumbleupon.com), which has attracted 3.7 million consumers to its easy-to-use "thumbs up/thumbs down" ratings of Web sites and videos, said on Monday it plans to introduce a new SearchReviews feature on major Web sites.

LONDON - British and Dutch police shut down what they say is one the world's biggest online sources of pirated music Tuesday and arrested the Web site's 24-year-old suspected operator.

The invitation-only OiNK Web site specialized in distributing albums leaked before their official release by record companies, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said.

Many among OiNK's estimated 180,000 members paid "donations" to upload or download albums, often weeks before their release, and within hours albums would be distributed through public forums and blogs across the Internet. Users were invited to the site if they could prove they had music to share, the IFPI said.

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Cisco Systems Inc. is snapping up privately held Navini Networks Inc. for $330 million, extending the networking equipment maker's acquisition streak and providing the latest validation for the new wireless network technology called WiMax.

Cisco, the world's largest maker of routers and switches to direct traffic over the Internet, said Tuesday that Navini's technology will help it build high-speed Internet networks deep in emerging markets where traditional Internet infrastructure doesn't exist or is spotty.

Unlike Wi-Fi networks, which are found in homes and cafes and typically have a range of just a few hundred yards, WiMax networks can extend for miles and blanket entire cities with broadband connectivity.

NEW YORK - Two services launching just a week apart tap a growing interest in DNA testing to help people find their ancestors and learn more about their lives.

GeneTree, which opens Tuesday, and Ancestry.com, which started its DNA Ancestry service last Tuesday, both sell DNA kits for less than $200. Users can build online family trees and contact others with DNA matches to compare family histories.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp ended three years of resistance on Monday, finally agreeing to comply with a landmark 2004 antitrust decision by the European Commission.

The defeated software giant announced it would not appeal against a decisive European Union court ruling two months ago that backed the bloc's executive Commission.

"The repercussions of these changes will start now and will continue for years to come," Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes told a news conference, adding that Microsoft's agreement would have "profound effects" on the software industry.

This year, Mario trumps “Madden.”

Maybe not in overall revenues, but according to the top 20 publisher’s list, put out annually by Game Developer Magazine, Nintendo leveled up on Electronic Arts this year.

How? It wasn’t pure financials, although Nintendo was competitive in that respect. And it wasn’t due to number of releases: Nintendo shipped just 32 games last year. EA shipped 116.

ROUND ROCK, Texas - Dell Inc. plans to sell computers and other electronics gear at 1,400 Staples Inc. stores, the latest departure from the direct-to-customer business model pioneered by the No. 2 computer maker.

Dell and the world's biggest office products supplier announced Monday that Staples would offer Dell desktop and notebook computers, monitors, printers, ink and toner starting Nov. 11. Dell products also will be available through Staples' Web site.

Initial Dell computer models to be sold at Staples include Inspiron 1721 and 1521 notebooks, and Inspiron 530 desktops.

Forrester analyst James McQuivey said that the agreement between Disney, Microsoft, NBC Universal, and others over posting copyright-protected content online is not a step forward. "All it did was put in one place the arguments that they have been making behind closed doors," he said, adding that it doesn't propose a specific technology.

SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer compared the company's search technology to a precocious toddler — one who would eventually grow up to rival nemesis Google.

During an animated discussion at the Web 2.0 Summit moderated by organizer John Battelle, Ballmer took a paternal tone, saying Microsoft's own Web search technology needed improvements.

"You're just 3 years old, and we've got you in there playing basketball with a 12-year-old," Ballmer gushed and gesticulated, nearly popping out of his seat. "You're growing up quick and getting better every day, and you've got all the potential in world, and it may take you 'til you're 7, 8, 9 or 10, but you're gonna dunk and you're gonna dunk on the other guy some day, Johnny."

NEW YORK - To test claims by users that Comcast Corp. was blocking some forms of file-sharing traffic, The Associated Press went to the Bible.

An AP reporter attempted to download, using file-sharing program BitTorrent, a copy of the King James Bible from two computers in the Philadelphia and San Francisco areas, both of which were connected to the Internet through Comcast cable modems.

We picked the Bible for the test because it's not protected by copyright and the file is a convenient size.

In two out of three tries, the transfer was blocked. In the third, the transfer started only after a 10-minute delay. When we tried to upload files that were in demand by a wider number of BitTorrent users, those connections were also blocked.

At the last day of the Web 2.0 Summit, attendees learned that having their genome mapped will set them back US$300,000 and that Google Inc.'s founders really stress over the prevention and extermination of evil.
ADVERTISEMENT

During a panel of former Google employees, they confirmed to moderator and conference chair John Battelle that, yes, Larry Page and Sergey Brin do factor heavily into business and technology decisions whether they will have evil consequences.

“Despite this being a desktop or HTPC case, the PC-C32 is quite large. This is because it supports a full-size ATX motherboard and standard ATX PSU - no being stuck with a microATX motherboard or weird PSU form factor. The downside to this, is of course that the case isn't as slim as some others out there, and may not blend in with your HT setup. The dimensions of the case are 426 x 167 x 530mm or about 17" x 6.5" x 21" (WxHxD); for rackmount purposes this corresponds to a 4U size. (1U is about 1.75" thick) The depth in particular isn't well-shown on Lian-Li's site; with a depth of 21", you'll want to make sure that this case can fit where you want to put it!”

“ASUS has been gracious in providing us with two enthusiast minded solutions for both DDR2 and DDR3 utilizing the same P35 chipset, in the Blitz Formula and Blitz Extreme. Why would ASUS consider offering the two options? Well in a nut shell, it simply saves you some money since new memory standards are always costly at the start and some users would like to really maximize their DDR2 based system. ASUS is well aware of this and felt that there was no reason why both kinds of memory module owners couldn't have a little bit of cake and ice cream. The only question you would need to ask yourself is, which flavor ice cream you would like.”

NEW YORK - Comcast Corp. actively interferes with attempts by some of its high-speed Internet subscribers to share files online, a move that runs counter to the tradition of treating all types of Net traffic equally.

The interference, which The Associated Press confirmed through nationwide tests, is the most drastic example yet of data discrimination by a U.S. Internet service provider. It involves company computers masquerading as those of its users.

If widely applied by other ISPs, the technology Comcast is using would be a crippling blow to the BitTorrent, eDonkey and Gnutella file-sharing networks. While these are mainly known as sources of copyright music, software and movies, BitTorrent in particular is emerging as a legitimate tool for quickly disseminating legal content.

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Video game developers, eager to please all consumers, are increasingly including features that let gamers play with or against their friends.

With Microsoft trying to convince people to plunk down $50 a year for its Xbox Live service, and Sony eyeing the sale of movies and music over its fledgling network, developers are under more pressure than ever to include some sort of online component.

The best-known example may be Microsoft's "Halo 3", but last week also saw the release of "The Orange Box" -- a collection of "Half-Life 2" content from Electronic Arts that includes a long-awaited multiplayer-only title called "Team Fortress 2". The week before that had the launch of "Enemy Territory: Quake Wars" from Activision.

WASHINGTON - At first Megan Minor thought the warnings her ship was sinking were just another drill, until she looked toward the engine room and saw water coming up the stairs.

Thanks to rapid response based on satellite signals, she and the crew of the Jacob Alan were quickly rescued, she said Friday at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the Search-and-Rescue satellite system.

When Minor was plucked from the Atlantic Ocean off Massachusetts on Sept. 28, she became one of more than 22,000 individuals worldwide who have been rescued in the 25 years the COSPAS-SARSAT system has been operating.

Sunnyvale, CA—October 17, 2007—OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today announced two new PC2-6400 Titanium Edition dual channel kits. These modules feature enhanced timings with low latencies, and are the ultimate upgrade in performance or capacity for gamers and enthusiasts in need of a rock solid memory kit.

As part of the OCZ Titanium series, the PC2-6400 CL3 Edition modules are engineered to satisfy the demands of overclockers and enthusiasts, delivering the tight latencies and speed gamers require for today’s graphic-intensive DirectX 10 PC games. The PC2-6400 Titanium CL3 Edition tackles your toughest computing experience at blistering 3-4-4 timings at 800MHz, offering superior bandwidth and stability on the latest platforms.
For enthusiasts shifting to Vista and who need the performance of high speed memory, the PC2-6400 Titanium 4GB kit is the ideal upgrade from the standard 2GB of RAM. The OCZ PC-6400 4GB Titanium series was developed to provide a superior computing experience that ensures the best possible gaming and productivity, and at incredible 4-4-4 timings offers tighter timings than typical 4GB kits.


“Because Vista allows physical address extension as integral part of the operating system, users are no longer limited to the 2GB user memory space but can take full advantage of the new 4GB kits, even in a 32-bit computing environment,” commented Dr. Michael Schuette, VP of Technology Development at OCZ Technology. “Both these new low latency modules and kits are OCZ’s contribution to enhanced user experience in demanding applications or mega-tasking environments.”

SAN JOSE, Calif. - In an apparent about-face, Apple Inc. will allow third-party applications to work directly on the iPhone, Chief Executive Steve Jobs said in a posting on the company's Web site Wednesday. Apple infuriated developers and some iPhone users when it issued a software update Sept. 27 that disabled unofficial programs installed on the handsets.

Until Wednesday, Apple had tried to control which applications consumers had on their iPhones.

Now, Jobs said the company intends to release a software development kit in February that will let coders create applications to work directly on the iPhone and the iPod Touch. The Touch is the new iPod portable player that resembles the iPhone but lacks the function of a cell phone.

“When this next item was offered up for review, I jumped on the opportunity right away. I seem to get weird, off-the-wall items to review *cough*Bat case*cough* and, well, this next item definitely falls into the weird category. The item in question is the Gemin II from CoolerMaster, or as I like to call it, "The Griddle". The Gemin II is a large, low sitting cooler designed to not only cool the CPU, but many of the other motherboard components around the CPU, like the capacitor and RAM. The Gemin II uses two 120mm fans (not included) to cool its large surface.”

MINNEAPOLIS - Best Buy Co. said Wednesday it has stopped selling analog televisions and pulled all remaining stock from its shelves, signalling the end of an era as consumers increasingly move toward digital products with flat-panel and high-definition screens.

Best Buy, one of the nation's top electronics retailers, heralded the reign of digital TVs, saying it made the move "as the end of the analog broadcast era draws near." Best Buy instructed stores to stop selling the products on Oct. 1.

NEW YORK - It's official: touch screens are the big new thing in cell phones this holiday season.

Sprint Nextel Corp. announced Wednesday it is jumping on the bandwagon with the Touch by HTC. Like Apple Inc.'s iPhone, this smart phone has only a few buttons and is designed to be controlled by touching the screen. The Touch will go on sale Nov. 4 for $250 with a two-year contract.

BERLIN, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Internet users in Egypt, India and Turkey are the world's most frequent searchers for Web sites using the keyword "sex" on Google search engines, according to statistics provided by Google Inc.

Germany, Mexico and Austria were world's top three searchers of the word "Hitler" while "Nazi" scored the most hits in Chile, Australia and the United Kingdom, data from 2004 to the present retrievable on the "Google Trends" Web site showed.

Chile also came in first place searching for the word "gay", followed by Mexico and Colombia.

Asustek Computer's low-cost Eee PC notebook has gone on sale in Taiwan with pricing at online retailers at around NT$11,655 (US$358). This is much higher than the price of US$199 Asustek originally promoted for the portable PC, but this was to be as expected as Asustek recently admitted that the lower price would only be available for bulk purchases of a model with lower specifications, and which is intended for emerging markets.

The model now on sale in Taiwan features a 7-inch LCD display, 4GB solid state storage, 512MB DDR2 RAM and runs on an Intel mobile processor. Weight is given as 920g. The devices also features three USB 2.0 ports, Wi-Fi b/g connectivity, a VGA output, two audio jacks, Secure Digital (SD) card reader (which according to earlier reports also supports SDHC cards), webcam, speakers, and LAN and modem ports. Battery life is listed as 3.5 hours.

If you have any computer CPU cooling system, no matter how old, no matter how functional, trade it in to us and we'll give you up to 30% off any of our products! Just visit the website for details!

My feeling toward my iPhone has gone from reasonably hopeful to hopeless regret.

When I purchased the iPhone the day they came out, I told myself that the long list of gripes was tolerable because Apple would very likely add so many of the missing features commonly found on every other smartphone. Simple things, like the ability to look up a contact by tapping in a few letters, or a way to copy and paste information from an e-mail or Web page into a contact or note card.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Napster Inc, the digital music service, said on Tuesday it plans to attract more customers by moving to a Web-based platform allowing users to play their music from any computer without having to download any additional software.

The move is intended to open up the service and attract more paying subscribers by making the Napster platform more flexible and compatible with any Internet-enabled device.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Tuesday the newest version of its Macintosh operating system will go on sale on October 26, finally hitting the market after a four-month delay due to the company's work on the iPhone.

The new operating system, which is called Leopard, is the sixth update to Apple's OS X software and will cost $129 for a single user and $199 for a family pack, which can be installed on up to five computers in a single household.

WASHINGTON - The House on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a four-year extension of a moratorium on state and local taxes on Internet access, despite widespread support in both parties for a permanent ban.

The tax ban, first passed in 1998, is set to expire on Nov. 1. The extension exempts some states that approved taxes prior to the original enactment.

The vote was 405-2.

"This bill is pro consumer, pro innovation and pro technology," said Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., one of the bill's sponsors.

Fremont, CA, October 16, 2007 – Corsair® www.corsair.com, a worldwide leader in design and manufacturer of high-performance memory and peripheral components, today announced the latest addition to their Corsair power supply lineup: the Corsair TX Series. Inspired by Corsair’s award-winning HX Series, Corsair has engineered the TX Series to be a family of high-wattage, high-performance power supplies that meets and exceeds the most demanding specifications of enthusiasts and performance seekers